Name: Leg of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton (about 8 pounds); 2-3 cloves of garlic

Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton (about 8 pounds)
2-3 cloves of garlic

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Make a small incision at the knuckle of the leg of mutton 2-3 days before roasting.
Insert the garlic cloves into the incision.

Roast and serve

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Run a spit under the thigh-bone and out at the knuckle.
Roast the leg for about 1.5 hours.
Serve with a frill on the knuckle.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mutton + garlictop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together673 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Mutton + clovetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,152 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton: Provides the main body of meat that becomes tender and juicy during slow roasting.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma that infuses the meat as it cooks from the inside near the bone.